• CLOSED: Kwan-Imm Jae

  • (24)
    6

    Closed

  • White Vegan
Vegan
Chinese
Thai

Thai vegan food with mock meat. Specializing in "suki" dishes which are hotpots served from a central pot at the table over a heating element. Has water and soft drinks. Staff speaks English. Directions: Be aware of it being soi 24/1, walk 30 meters and restaurant is on right side pass bars & massage parlors; look for yellow & red sign for "jae." The soi (side street) on which it is located, Soi Sukhumvit 24/1 is a "bis" street, meaning that it is one block north of Soi Sukhumvit 24 on the right and unmarked. Reported closed/shut down to HappyCow Sept 2013.


Venue map for Kwan-Imm Jae
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24 Reviews

First Review by Krsnamayi

tiptopcat

Points +29

Vegetarian
26 Oct 2013

Such a shame its closed! :( Great place!

Really sad to see it closed... I really liked this place :(

I've tip toed through the mine field of massage parlors and made my way to Kwan-Imm Jae on quite a few occasions. It's a simple, friendly... and just damn good restaurant! It has a larger number of local/Chinese clientele... and me when I'm in PromPong! Very tasty Thai/Chinese dishes at good prices. Ooow... I'm getting hungry now. I may well go there a little later today! 5 stars.
Updated from previous review on Thursday July 01, 2010

Pros: Great food, Relaxed and Friendly

Cons: Closed

Xplorer to musik

Points +18

Vegan
12 Oct 2013

closed but we found another veg. place nearby.

We went to Kwan Imm Jae but found no sign of it. Their neighbor said that the restuarant has been closed down quite a few months already. As we were so hungry for dinner and had a senior Taiwanese guest with us, we had to quickly find another equivalent veg. Restuarant in the same area. Luckily, we were recommended to go to V residence restuarant which was located on the Main Street next to the gas station where we parked.
This restuarant was even better because they also had vegetarian menu!!
It was newly renovated with cozy atmosphere and very friendly service.

Pawness

Points +83

Vegetarian
01 Sep 2013

Closed - store front is empty now.

This place doesn't exist - at least not at this address.

Durianrider

Points +372

Vegan
03 Aug 2013

Closed but maybe re-open.

Rode past today and signage still up. Maybe refurbishing the place.

Still have all the furniture/settings inside. Too early to make a permanent call. Plenty of vegan friendly veg resturants nearby though.

Pros: great food and service

Cons: closed currently

Goattee

Points +31

Mostly Veg
01 Aug 2013

Definitely Closed

We made a trip over. The place has been vacated.

a112

Points +133

Raw
07 Apr 2013

Too much fried, not healthy

It was our first place to eat in Thailand. And it was so-so, maybe cause of Singapore (vegan paradise) we visited before. My wife told that her food was too savour and deep fried(
Description of making for me just raw salad took too much time.
Place is clean, but location in dark road between sex&massage saloons was ugly - we were with our 6yrs old kid.

annette

Points +110

Vegetarian
04 Apr 2013

Good Place

Enjoyed our dining experience here. Simple Chinese decor & fare. Green curry was delicious flavour & lots of veges and tofu. Mini suki was a lovely tasting broth & filled with plenty of veges & mock seafood/meats. Broth was lovely & plenty of veges & mock seafood/meat variety. It closes for lunch at 2pm so make sure you get there early. Some strange things on the menu like pig liver with enoki,double boiled goat meat with herbs etc. We were not that brave to try those but the menu was very extensive. The owners are very friendly and advised the recommended dishes with an asterik. We would definately go back again. Good value with dishes starting at 25bht up to 130Bht

Pros: Great food, Good value, Friendly staff

Cons: Place needs a paint job!

Wurst

Points +42

Vegan
30 Mar 2013

OK food, not mind-blowing

We went to this place twice now, after checking out many venues in Bangkok that offer vegan food.
The food that you can order is quite good, the suki (Hot pot soup) tastes really blend and boring and the suki sauce they offer with the dish was watery and tasteless.

The prices are OK for this location and the ingredients fresh. It might be OK to go once in a while, but if you live in Bangkok you have more options to go to for vegan suki.
(Be aware though, in many places they use pork stock or chicken stock for the soup...)

Pros: Fresh veggies, OK prices

Cons: Boring taste of the soup and suki sauce

jre8995

Points +403

Vegetarian
02 Feb 2013

Great sauces

Came here on the strength of other reviews, despite being not a huge fan of mock meat
Food was good, especially the sauces. We had eggplant with chilli, fish red curry (apparently house favourite), musaman curry and chicken drumsticks

NB Soi 24/1 is now marked with a road sign

lotustummy

Points +1162

Vegan
11 Jan 2013

makes our tummies happy!

we were so happy to find this place! affordable yummy food. We didnt have Suki but we had the thai style soup and pad thai one night - the soup was sooo aromatic and wonderful. Pad Thai was ok... had better. Another night we had the Tom Yam Soup (fantastic!!!), chicken fried rice and spring rolls - all great! We also tried the morning glory and mushrooms once - so fresh and delicious and green curry = also good.
We really liked the food - portions were fine. We found that some dishes had too much mock meat and both our tummies were a little sore from it one night - be careful.
But - staff is lovely and everyone in the restaurant is super friendly - the locals love to see foreigners in there :)
price is definitely a bonus with no VAT.
highly recommended!

Pros: huge selection, fresh clean food, not greasy at all

Cons: mock meat can hurt your tummy

dan&mia

Points +759

Vegetarian
08 Dec 2012

Tasty food, nice owners

They spoke no english, so I'm not sure whether the food has MSG. We enjoyed the meal and it was very inexpensive.

emmers

Points +61

Vegetarian
25 Oct 2011

Liked this place

I live in Bangkok and went to this restaurant with my girlfriend for lunch after reading the positive reviews here - and we liked it a lot. We had the Masaman curry, Thai style hotdog salad and rice - all very good and reasonably priced. We were the only customers there at the time, as it was towards the end of their lunchtime opening hours, but the service was attentive and friendly. It's a nice quiet spot with a family run feel - the owner happily chatted to us. They have an extensive menu including many mock-meat style dishes, a mix of Thai and Chinese. We'll definitely be back to try the other items on the menu.

Pros: Good location, Tasty food, Lots of choice

Cons: Closes between 14:00-17:00

JezzingtonBear

Points +47

Vegan
07 Aug 2011

If you like mock meats, this is the place!

This restaurant is actually very easy to find as long as you know not to look for the name of the place in roman characters. Just look for the round, yellow sign with the large, red Chinese symbol on it.

They open at 5pm for dinner. I turned up at 5:30 and was the only customer there the whole time. The ambience is closer to that of a cafe than a restaurant, which is fine. The menu is huge but not quite overwhelming and recommended dishes are marked. I went for the chicken drumsticks, as mentioned in a few of the reviews here. Delicious, great texture and served with a sweet chilli sauce. I also got the minced duck with hot and sour dressing. I was glad that it was sctually shredded, rather than 'minced'. Again, great taste and texture, though it was served on some quite limp and unnecessary lettuce leaves. I also got the salted fish fried rice. The bits of 'fish' were the least impressive of the mock meats I had. It tasted okay but the texture was somewhat over-chewy. The rice was brown.

All in all, a delicious and impressive meal. I will certainly return to try more of their menu.

Pros: Interesting menu, Tasty food, Pretty cheap

Cons: Slightly shabby

szeevster

Points +40

Vegetarian
13 Jul 2011

First taste of Bangok

Not easy to get to - especially for the local taxi drivers who are anyway a pretty clueless lot. Next to some less-than-savory looking massage places, the restaurant is simple and clean. They boast a large menu and the food was excellent and inexpensive. We had a soup with tofu and mushrooms that was great, Pad Thai noodles with some bean curd that was even more great. And stir fried rice that was sublime. The place closes at 10.

Pros: excellent food, healthy cuisine, good value

Cons: None

eatinggreen

Points +608

Vegan
10 Jul 2011

Nearly good, but left us feeling sick

Part way into this meal I was thinking we'd found yet another winner in Bangkok.

The menu here, as others have mentioned, is extensive (although much of it is Chinese) and everything tastes ok - nothing out of the box, but certainly enjoyable.

We were already aware that mock meat is used extensively here so tried to avoid ordering anything that overtly included it, but alas it popped up in most dishes anyway (sorry but in my mind unless mock meat is made fresh on premises it is at the same level as commercial dog food - much of it is imported from taiwan etc and there have been numerous cases of it being found to contain not only real meat but all sorts of non-food ingredients).

We also specified at the time of ordering that we didn't want them to use any MSG in our food and judging from the response we got the feeling they probably don't use much of it anyway - we couldn't detect the taste in any of what we got, so that was good

The service was prompt and polite and ambience like a typical Chinese joint only a bit cleaner. Certainly no worries there.

The problem for us was that (a) there weren't enough veges (even our 'mix vege tom yum' had very few in there) so despite ordering WAY too much food for 2 people we still felt like we were lacking in nutrients, and (b) whatever oil they are using, it can't be good.

Part way through the meal I had to stop and collect myself - my head was spinning and I felt like I was on my way into a bad experience, feeling light and floaty. When I mentioned it to my partner he said he was feeling a bit off too. We managed to get down most of what we ordered, but feeling a bit nauseous, we came to the conclusion that it must be the oil they use. Both of us are quite sensitive to excess and bad quality oil since we don't usually consume it, so when it pops up, we'll be the first to detect it.

After arriving back at the hotel I was in writhing agony for an hour or so - I'm currently nursing a leg injury and the meal had caused it to flare up majorly for the first time in months.

So although I actually did enjoy the tastes and variety on offer, I'm not sure I'd be game to try it again. If I were to go, I'd stick to the hotpot, or 'suki' on the first page of the menu. That way the oil content is quite low, you can choose all the veges you like (although even then the vege selection is only average) and you can exclude the mock meat. The sauce for the suki was really nice and I'm willing to believe it wasn't too oily.

Pros: Thai hotpot menu, Clean shop, Polite staff

Cons: Bad quality oil, Mock meat nightmares, Insufficient vegetables

OT

Points +95

Vegan
27 May 2011

Good Buddhist Vegetarian Restaurant

Very nice food with a chinese flavour. We have eaten here a few times now and the food is always yummy. We particularly like the fact that the menu gives non spicey options. The people are helpful and nice - the restaurant is buddhist. Our only negative comment would be that there are no cold drinks on offer. We now take our own cold water and the staff don't mind. Good vegie food.

Pros: Tasty food, Varied menu, Non spicy options

Cons: No cold drinks, Cost a little higher

Veggisaurus

Points +34

Vegetarian
28 Feb 2011

Delicious!

The food here is excellent, both Thai and Chinese. Our favourite is the vegetarian fish curry, which is a Penang-style curry with plenty of lime leaves - tastes of the sea (seaweed is used in it), not fish! Restautrant is airconditioned and though not posh os very pleasant.

Tell your frinds to come.

m@earthville

Points +9252

Vegan
19 Feb 2011

Great vegan eats - one of our Bangkok faves!

Kwan-Imm Jae is a low-key family-style eatery tucked a few doors down Sukhumvit Soi 24/1 (a block east of Soi 24 proper, just east of Phrom Phong BTS station).

Having eaten here well over a dozen times, we can recommend a lot of the extensive menu, though we still haven't been able to try everything. The dishes range from simple and mild to rich and delicious, and with such a long and varied menu it can take some experimentation to find your own favorites. Fortunately, you'll find plenty of both fauxtein options and straight veggies from which to choose. To help you get your feet wet, there's a small white paper attached to the top of the menu that highlights a few specials and recommended items for newcomers. Not all of the servers speak English, but there's always at least one person there who does, and they're all warm and happy to help.

A key to understanding the menu: the first page is devoted to listing single ingredients for Chinese-style hotpot soups, most suitable for more than one person (and the more the merrier). A group orders several ingredients and you make the soup yourself at the table. The rest of the menu is divided into groups based on the flavors (e.g. sweet and sour, sweet and spicy, etc.)

Recommended starters include the 'chicken drumsticks' and 'fried king prawns.' The tom yum soup was rich and tasty, though a bit oily for our tastes.

Our favorite main dishes include the asparagus with 'fish sticks' (pretty mild), fried basil leaf with vegetables, braised 'duck' salad (spicy), dragon seaweed special (spicy), and fried kale with salted 'fish,' and the Pad Thai, which is not overly sweet and has some interesting fauxtein bits.

But we never visit Kwan-Imm Jae without ordering at least one of their 'Chinese Buns' (dim sum). The 'red pork' bun is our favorite of the savory choices, and for a dessert treat we like both the 'cream bun' (which is vegan - no dairy cream) or the (new and as-yet unadvertised) 'green nut' bun. At B16, these buns are a quick and cheap way to fill up any extra space in your tummy at the end of the meal.

Finally, a note about water: they offer bottled water in both plastic and glass bottles; be sure to ask for the glass ones.

Enjoy!

Pros: Extensive, varied menu, All vegan dishes, Inexpensive

Cons: Limited drinks, no fresh juice

Eacampbell

Points +43

Vegetarian
28 Nov 2010

Delicious!

Have eaten the larb duck, chicken, fried tofu, fish w/chili and onion, and more -- everything has been delicious. The fake fish is an interesting mushroom mix and the fake duck is wonderful. The ingredients are fresh and the dishes are flavorful.
The staff are friendly even though a bit inexperienced in waiting tables.
If you can stand being in a pretty skeevy soi with massage parlors and the like, enjoy this great restaurant in the heart of Bangkok. I return here whenever I can!

Pros: Delicious food, Fresh ingredients, Great value

Cons: Location

w11guy

Points +74

Vegan
31 Oct 2010

One Of My Favourites In Bangkok

This is one of my favourite veggie places in Bangkok. It's on Soi 24/1, so might be a little difficult to find. It's just a small soi off Sukhumvit. At teh entrance to the soi there are lots of motorbike taxis and some street food stalls. Kwan-Imm Jae is on the right, about 6 shops into the soi. Food is freshly cooked and very tasty. Lots of mock meat dishes. They even have vegan ice cream - vanilla, strawberry and choc chip. Reasonably priced. Not that this place is closed between 2 and 5pm.

Pros: Great Selection, Very Tasty, Friendly place

enRoute

Points +1401

Vegan
29 Apr 2010

standard Chinese veg fare

I agree with the poster who said to make sure you're on 24/1 and not 24... I wandered quite a bit before finding this place (ie. alll the way down Soi 24).

Pretty standard Chinese mockmeat affair, pleasant place but I wasn't too blown away by what I ended up having (the roast goose with Spinach). Would certainly go back though

Pros: cheap, mockmeaty, friendly

Cons: hard to find, a bit bland

bluedonut

Points +99

Vegan
22 Apr 2010

tasty food, recommended

I had the spicy duck, and will be back. I asked the guy to recommended a few things, and took one of them. They speak English, though are Thai. That's vegetarian duck btw!. They have an extensive menu. The water and the ice is filtered, and there's things like mint and chrysanthemum tea, which is great on a hot day.

Note that Soi 24/1 is the next street up from Soi 24 (I am just learning this) off of Sukumvit. The 24/1 street also has some teen massage places (where you get happy endings, etc.) and non-sexual massage places. Down the street a bit further on left, is a massage place called Pattrawadee and they have excellent non-sexual massages, esp foot massages.

Pros: tasty, clean, convenient

Cons: not super healthy

Molton

Points +119

Vegan
25 Mar 2010

Vegetarian's dream

Air-conditioned small and quiet restaurant with about 10 tables. Bright colors, relaxing music and streetview. Friendly staff. Very interesting and extensive menu. If you're hungry, I recommend the green curry for 80 bath. Thai vegetables and lots of tofu inside. The delicious liver (tofu-based) with fried basil for 90 Bath was smaller sized. I also liked the typical Som-Tam (Papaya-Salad) for 60 Bath, without fishsauce, of course. Next time I'll order the Tum-Yum soup or some of the Suki variety (Similar to MK-Restaurant) and there's a lot more to try. Drinks: Coke, Water, Hot or Iced Tea. Good location near BTS Phrom Phong. Great place indeed.

Pros: Location, Selection, Taste

Krsnamayi

Points +83

Vegetarian
12 Apr 2009

Chinese Veg food`

This is a nice chinese veg joint. Dishes range from around 80 bhat....so I would say it's more like 2 carrots. Spring rolls are great, as well as vegetables in tomato sauce. We also tried spicy eggplant with basil and rice noodles with curry sauce, both typically Thai dishes. All in all an excellent meal. I would definately return.
Make sure that you go down 24/1 not soi 24!

Pros: Tasty & Fresh, friendly staff, great variety




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